Since the fall of the Taliban, girls have made up a third of
the 3 million children who flocked to schools when they reopened.
Teachers who held secret classes when girls' education was outlawed
have returned to public schools. UNICEF estimates that about
a third of Afghan teachers are women. For the first time in
five years, female students and faculty are back at the country's
universities.

Photo courtesy Eve Lyman

But educating girls in Afghanistan is no easy task. The country
lacks school supplies, qualified teachers and adequate school
facilities. Only 21 percent of Afghan women can read. And conservative
attitudes, particularly in rural areas, keep girls out of school.
According to Nadya, the only female teacher in the remote district
of southeastern Afghanistan where she lives and works, "Some
families still say if their daughters study higher classes they
will forget their cultural values." Over the past year, more
than a dozen girls' schools in Afghanistan have been bombed,
vandalized or set on fire, often after the appearance of anonymous
leaflets that warn parents to keep their daughters home. A survey
of women in Kandahar by Afghans for Civil Society found that
despite a strong desire for their children to receive an education,
some parents worry that sending their daughters to school every
day would endanger their family's reputation in the community.

A group of female students at Kabul University told Human
Rights Watch, "First, we wish the girls who live in the provinces
would have schools - [and] not just grades one through five
... . Second, we wish that they would collect all the guns from
the gunmen, so girls can go out and go to school. Third, we
wish they would talk with families -- girls are interested,
but some families won't let them go out." Many women see education
as the best hope for solving the challenges that continue to
face Afghan women.